April 16, 2009

Teabagging isn't funny, anymore

Here is my article on the Tax Day Tea Party in Albany. Wow. Some lively characters at that big afternoon of zany.

There
is some confusion about the number of people who turned out: According
Al Roney and Fox News, "more than 2,000 people" turned out for the
bitch-fest, whereas I reported the number at a humble "well more than
1,000." Not to be out-done, the Times Union reported that there were more than 2,500 people(!!!). Holy shit!

I
am sticking by my number (until I am proven absolutely wrong). As far
as I know, the Hudson Amphitheater at Corning Preserve seats about 800,
and according to the Albany City Web site, the venue can host more than
1,000 people, a number that probably includes for the loungers and
late-comers who sit on the grass.

Regardless of the number, it was an impressive crowd. I'll give them that. Yee-haw.

And let's try to clear up
another point of confusion, this one intentional: This was not a nonpartisan rally
of concerned citizens brought together by a single point of protest
(TAXES), as Roney wants us to believe. Not even close. This
was a crowd of REPUBLICANS. They wore tricorne hats and called
themselves Constitutionalists, flirted with Paultards and libertarians,
and puffed themselves up with the idea that they could actually go out
and start a viable, national third party, but in the end, all these people want
is another shot at Morning in America.

The Tax Day Tea Party of
2009 was a gathering of
the disgruntled, frustrated, marginalized, and
spurned Children of Reagan who really, really hate politicians now that most of the
ones in power are DEMOCRATS. And then there's that
SOCIALIST...

Joy Andreassen of Leeds was left holding her husband’s sign:
“Obama—we are proud of America. If you aren’t proud leave.
We bow to no one!”

“Everything
about Obama offends me,” Andreassen said. “I am very pro-life,
and he is very, very anti-life. So everything he does offends
me.”

This isn’t her first rally; she has marched on abortion issues
in the past. When asked if the rally is nonpartisan, she was
quick to say, “Yes, absolutely.”

“I
don’t like the way the country is going in any way, shape
or form. And he has only been in for a few months,” she said.
“As soon as he got in, he took away a day of prayer. Who does
that? And then he went right into abortion, and changed everything
there. He is giving our money away, the future of our children.”

As for the previous administration’s responsibility for the
financial issues the country is grappling with: “There is
plenty of blame for everyone, but I don’t really blame Bush.”